Pokemon Go's Nearby Feature Is Now Available In More Areas

Niantic Labs has announced that their Pokemon Go tracker replacement, called the "Nearby" feature, has gone live in more areas. They're currently getting feedback and seeking to expand on the popular app with the Nearby feature and you're likely going to be able to participate.

Over on the official Pokemon Go website, Niantic announced that the continental U.S. regions have been added to the testing phase of Pokemon Go's new Nearby feature. They also unleashed this new feature to large parts of Europe, but they didn't specify exactly which parts.

They'll be reviewing feedback on the new Nearby feature through comments and suggestions made through social media accounts as well as the official website. They state in the post that they will make changes as necessary to the Nearby feature for Pokemon Go.

They announced a short while ago that the feature would be arriving soon for testing and that it would allow gamers to experience a new way to track and locate nearby Pokemon. Previously, back near the end of November, they announced that the Nearby feature would be tested through states west of the Mississippi River save for Haiwaii and Alaska. They also mentioned that they were testing the feature in Canada and in Australia and New Zealand.

Originally they started testing the feature in San Francisco, California to see how well it worked and whether or not gamers enjoyed being able to sight PokeStops and other Pokemon. Apparently it all worked out well enough because they're continuing to slowly expand the Nearby feature in Pokemon Go to more and more territories.

The feature is aimed at replacing the old Pokemon tracker that launched with Pokemon Go. Originally it showed three footprints of a Pokemon that was nearby the player's location. The footprints would indicate where the player would need to head next in order to get their hands on the Pokemon.

Unfortunately, the tracker broke. The three footprints would no longer appear properly or they would get stuck and people couldn't properly find the Pokemon they originally sought to capture. This broken feature in Pokemon Go was quickly replaced by mods from others who made it possible to not only track Pokemon easier but to actually see them all over your map. So it was easy to travel around and pick up Pokemon because you could see literally all of the little critters right there on your screen.

Niantic Labs did not appreciate all of the tracking mods made available for Pokemon Go and began to swiftly send out cease and desist letters to those third-party tracking apps for the game. However, they never bothered to properly fix the tracking in the game or replace the broken three footprints.

With the new Nearby feature many gamers are hoping that they can return to the game and enjoy tracking and hunting down Pokemon in a more reasonable fashion. According to some users, they gave up on Pokemon Go due to the broken tracker, which they claimed made the game less fun to play.

Well, now that the Nearby feature is there, we'll see if the user engagement can be maintained and if gamers will find it to be a reasonable replacement for the old tracker.